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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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Life Sciences

Technological University Dublin

Series

2016

Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Investigating The Impact Of Green Exercise On Population Health And Well-Being In A Small Community In Ireland:A Novel Approach Using A Natural Laboratory Ecosystem., Nollaig O'Sullivan, Aoife Donnelly, Tadhg Macintyre, Giles Warrington Dec 2016

Investigating The Impact Of Green Exercise On Population Health And Well-Being In A Small Community In Ireland:A Novel Approach Using A Natural Laboratory Ecosystem., Nollaig O'Sullivan, Aoife Donnelly, Tadhg Macintyre, Giles Warrington

Articles

Green exercise is defined as undertaking physical activity whilst being directly exposed to nature (Pretty et al., 2005; 2007). Pretty et al. (2003) were among the first wave of researchers to investigate the synergistic benefits of incorporating physical activity and exposure to the natural environment to produce positive psychological affect. Over the past decade, investigations into the possible additive effects on well-being of green exercise and how it can be used as an influential tool to help combat the rising rate of both physical inactivity and non –communicable disease has gained prominence in scientific literature. However, there is still a …

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A Pilot Study Of Comparison Gesture Analysis In Motion Driven Video Games, Fabrizio Valerio Covone, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen Oct 2016

A Pilot Study Of Comparison Gesture Analysis In Motion Driven Video Games, Fabrizio Valerio Covone, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen

Conference Papers

This study investigates whether there are significant differences in the gestures made by gamers and non-gamers whilst playing commercial games that employ gesture inputs. Specifically, the study focuses on testing a prototype of multimodal capture tool that we used to obtain real-time audio, video and skeletal gesture data. Additionally, we developed an experimental design framework for the acquisition of spatio-temporal gesture data and analysed the vector magnitude of a gesture to compare the relative displacement of each participant whilst playing a game.

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In Vitro Monitoring Of Time And Dose Dependent Cytotoxicity Of Aminated Nanoparticles Using Raman Spectroscopy, Esen Efeoglu, Alan Casey, Hugh Byrne Jul 2016

In Vitro Monitoring Of Time And Dose Dependent Cytotoxicity Of Aminated Nanoparticles Using Raman Spectroscopy, Esen Efeoglu, Alan Casey, Hugh Byrne

Articles

No abstract provided.

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Spectroscopic Studies Of Anthracyclines: Structural Characterization And In Vitro Tracking, Zeineb Farhane, Hugh Byrne, Malgorzata Baranska Jul 2016

Spectroscopic Studies Of Anthracyclines: Structural Characterization And In Vitro Tracking, Zeineb Farhane, Hugh Byrne, Malgorzata Baranska

Articles

A broad spectroscopic characterization, using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and Fourier transform infrared absorption as well as Raman scattering, of two commonly used anthracyclines antibiotics (DOX) daunorubicin (DNR), their epimers (EDOX, EDNR) and ten selected analogs is presented. The paper serves as a comprehensive spectral library of UV-vis, IR and Raman spectra of anthracyclines in the solid state and in solution. The particular advantage of Raman spectroscopy for the measurement and analysis of individual antibiotics is demonstrated. Raman spectroscopy can be used to monitor the in vitro uptake and distribution of the drug in cells, using both 488 nm and 785 nm …

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A Comparison Of Catabolic Pathways Induced In Primary Macrophages By Pristine Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes And Pristine Graphene, Caroline More, Jennifer Mcintyre, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne Jun 2016

A Comparison Of Catabolic Pathways Induced In Primary Macrophages By Pristine Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes And Pristine Graphene, Caroline More, Jennifer Mcintyre, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Understanding the correlation between the physico-chemical properties of carbonaceous nanomaterials and how these properties impact on cells and subcelluar mechanisms is critical to their risk assessment and safe translation into newly engineered devices. Here the toxicity, uptake and catabolic response of primary human macrophages to pristine graphene (PG) and pristine single walled carbon nanotubes (pSWCNT) are explored, compared and contrasted. The nanomaterial toxicity was assessed using three complementary techniques (live-dead assay, real time impedance technique and confocal microscopic analysis), all of which indicated no signs of acute cytotoxicity in response to PG or pSWCNT. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated that …

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Evaluation Of Cytotoxicity Profile And Intracellular Localisation Of Doxorubicin-Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles, Gabriele Dadalt Souto, Zeineb Farhane, Esen Efeoglu, Alan Casey, Jennifer Mcintyre, Hugh Byrne Apr 2016

Evaluation Of Cytotoxicity Profile And Intracellular Localisation Of Doxorubicin-Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles, Gabriele Dadalt Souto, Zeineb Farhane, Esen Efeoglu, Alan Casey, Jennifer Mcintyre, Hugh Byrne

Articles

In the emerging field of nanomedicine, targeted delivery of nanoparticle encapsulated active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) is seen as a potential significant development, promising improved pharmacokinetics and reduced side effects. In this context, understanding the cellular uptake of the nanoparticles and subsequent subcellular distribution of the API is of critical importance. Doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated within chitosan nanoparticles to investigate its intracellular delivery in A549 cells in vitro. Unloaded (CS-TPP) and doxorubicin-loaded (DOX-CS-TPP) chitosan nanoparticles were characterised for size (473±41 nm), polydispersity index (0.3±0.2), zeta potential (34±4 mV), drug content (76±7 µM) and encapsulation efficiency (95±1%). The cytotoxic response to …

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Novel Mitochondrial Complex I Inhibitors Restore Glucose-Handling Abilities Of High-Fat Fed Mice, Darren Martin, Siobhan Leonard, Robert Devine, Clara Redondo, Gemma Kinsella, Conor Breen, Victoria Mceneaney, Mary Rooney, Tim Munsey, Richard Porter, Asipu Sivaprasadarao, John Stephens, John Findlay Apr 2016

Novel Mitochondrial Complex I Inhibitors Restore Glucose-Handling Abilities Of High-Fat Fed Mice, Darren Martin, Siobhan Leonard, Robert Devine, Clara Redondo, Gemma Kinsella, Conor Breen, Victoria Mceneaney, Mary Rooney, Tim Munsey, Richard Porter, Asipu Sivaprasadarao, John Stephens, John Findlay

Articles

Metformin is the main drug of choice for treating type 2 diabetes, yet the therapeutic regimens and side effects of the compound are all undesirable and can lead to reduced compliance. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of action of two novel compounds which improved glucose handling and weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet. Wildtype C57Bl/6 male mice were fed on a high-fat diet and treated with novel, anti-diabetic compounds. Both compounds restored the glucose handling ability of these mice. At a cellular level, these compounds achieve this by inhibiting complex I activity in …

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Chemotherapeutic Efficiency Of Drugs In Vitro: Comparison Of Doxorubicin Exposure In 3d And 2d Culture Matrices, Alan Casey, Mahmoud Gargotti, Franck Bonnier, Hugh Byrne Mar 2016

Chemotherapeutic Efficiency Of Drugs In Vitro: Comparison Of Doxorubicin Exposure In 3d And 2d Culture Matrices, Alan Casey, Mahmoud Gargotti, Franck Bonnier, Hugh Byrne

Articles

The interest in the use of 3D matrices for in vitro analysis, with a view to increasing the relevance of in vitro studies and reducing the dependence on in vivo studies, has been growing in recent years. Cells grown in a 3D in vitro matrix environment have been reported to exhibit significantly different properties to those in a conventional 2D culture environment. However, comparison of 2D and 3D cell culture models have recently been noted to result in differing responses of cytotoxic assays, without any associated change in viability. The effect was attributed to differing conversion rates and effective concentrations …

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Spectral Pre And Post Processing For Infrared And Raman Spectroscopy Of Biological Tissues And Cells, Hugh Byrne, Peter Knief, Mark Keating, Franck Bonnier Mar 2016

Spectral Pre And Post Processing For Infrared And Raman Spectroscopy Of Biological Tissues And Cells, Hugh Byrne, Peter Knief, Mark Keating, Franck Bonnier

Articles

Vibrational Spectroscopy, both infrared absorption and Raman spectroscopy, have attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications, from in vivo and ex vivo disease diagnostics and screening, to in vitro screening of therapeutics. There remain, however, many challenges related to the accuracy of analysis of physically and chemically inhomogeneous samples, across heterogeneous sample sets. Data preprocessing is required to deal with variations in instrumental responses and intrinsic spectral backgrounds and distortions in order to extract reliable spectral data. Data postprocessing is required to extract the most reliable information from the sample sets, based on often very subtle changes in spectra associated with …

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Acellular Reactivity Of Polymeric Dendrimer Nanoparticles As An Indicator Of Oxidative Stress In Vitro, Marcus Maher, Humza Khalid, Hugh Byrne Feb 2016

Acellular Reactivity Of Polymeric Dendrimer Nanoparticles As An Indicator Of Oxidative Stress In Vitro, Marcus Maher, Humza Khalid, Hugh Byrne

Articles

The need for rapid and cost effective pre-screening protocols of the toxicological response of the vast array of emerging nanoparticle types is apparent and the emerging consensus on the paradigm of oxidative stress by generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species as a primary source of the toxic response suggests the development of acellular assays to screen for nanoparticle surface reactivity. This study explores the potential of the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) enzyme based assay with polymeric dendrimers as cofactors and serotonin as substrate, which generates H2O2, quantified by the conversion of the Carboxy-H2DCFDA dye …

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Structural Dependence Of The In Vitro Cytotoxicity, Oxidative Stress And Uptake Mechanisms Of Poly(Propylene Imine) Dendritic Nanoparticles, Humza Khalid, Sourav Prasanna Mukherjee, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne Feb 2016

Structural Dependence Of The In Vitro Cytotoxicity, Oxidative Stress And Uptake Mechanisms Of Poly(Propylene Imine) Dendritic Nanoparticles, Humza Khalid, Sourav Prasanna Mukherjee, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne

Articles

The in vitro cytotoxic and intracellular oxidative stress responses to exposure to poly (propylene imine) (PPI) dendritic nanoparticles of increasing generation (number of repeated branching cycles) (G0-G4) were assessed in an immortal non-cancerous human keratinocyte cell-line (HaCaT). Confocal fluorescence microscopy with organelle staining was used to explore the uptake and intracellular trafficking mechanisms. A generation and dose dependent cytotoxic response was observed, increasing according to generation and therefore number of surface amino groups. A comparison of the cytotoxic response of G4 PPI and the related G4 Poly (amido amine) dendrimer indicates that the PPI with the same number of surface …

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Atypical Visual And Somatosensory Adaptation In Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders, Gizely Andrade, John Butler, Gregory Peter, Sophie Molholm, John J. Foxe Jan 2016

Atypical Visual And Somatosensory Adaptation In Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders, Gizely Andrade, John Butler, Gregory Peter, Sophie Molholm, John J. Foxe

Articles

Neurophysiological investigations in patients with schizophrenia consistently show early sensory processing deficits in the visual system. Importantly, comparable sensory deficits have also been established in healthy first-degree biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia and in first-episode drug-naive patients. The clear implication is that these measures are endophenotypic, related to the underlying genetic liability for schizophrenia. However, there is significant overlap between patient response distributions and those of healthy individuals without affected first-degree relatives. Here we sought to develop more sensitive measures of sensory dysfunction in this population, with an eye to establishing endophenotypic markers with better predictive capabilities. We used …

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Characterization Of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Atmospheric Air Plasma Treated Chitosan Films, Shashi Pankaj, Carmen Bueno-Ferrer, Luke O'Neill, B.K. Tiwari, Paula Bourke, Patrick J. Cullen Jan 2016

Characterization Of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Atmospheric Air Plasma Treated Chitosan Films, Shashi Pankaj, Carmen Bueno-Ferrer, Luke O'Neill, B.K. Tiwari, Paula Bourke, Patrick J. Cullen

Articles

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma is a novel non-thermal food decontamination technology. The effects of DBD plasma on the surface topography, chemical composition and crystal structure, film hydrophilicity, water vapor permeability and oxygen permeability of chitosan films have been examined. DBD plasma treatment increased the surface roughness of chitosan films with emergence of sharp protuberances. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra confirm a significant increase in the oxygen containing groups in the chitosan film after plasma treatment. Significant increase in the film hydrophilicity was observed after plasma treatment. X-ray diffraction results showed that DBD plasma treatment do …

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The Neural Dynamics Of Somatosensory Processing And Adaptation Across Childhood: A High-Density Electrical Mapping Study, Neha Uppal, John J. Foxe, John Butler, Frantzy Acluche, Sophie Molholm Jan 2016

The Neural Dynamics Of Somatosensory Processing And Adaptation Across Childhood: A High-Density Electrical Mapping Study, Neha Uppal, John J. Foxe, John Butler, Frantzy Acluche, Sophie Molholm

Articles

Young children are often hyperreactive to somatosensory inputs hardly noticed by adults, as exemplified by irritation to seams or labels in clothing. The neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying changes in sensory reactivity are not well understood. Based on the idea that neurodevelopmental changes in somatosensory processing and/or changes in sensory adaptation might underlie developmental differences in somatosensory reactivity, high-density electroencephalography was used to examine how the nervous system responds and adapts to repeated vibrotactile stimulation over childhood. Participants aged 6–18 yr old were presented with 50-ms vibrotactile stimuli to the right wrist over the median nerve at 5 blocked interstimulus intervals (ranging …

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Application Of Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display For Investigation Of Movement: A Novel Effect Of Orientation Of Attention, Brendan Quinlivan, John Butler, Ines Beiser, Laura Williams, Eavan Mcgovern, Sean O'Riordan, Michael Hutchinson, Richard Reilly Jan 2016

Application Of Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display For Investigation Of Movement: A Novel Effect Of Orientation Of Attention, Brendan Quinlivan, John Butler, Ines Beiser, Laura Williams, Eavan Mcgovern, Sean O'Riordan, Michael Hutchinson, Richard Reilly

Articles

Objective. To date human kinematics research has relied on video processing, motion capture and magnetic search coil data acquisition techniques. However, the use of head mounted display virtual reality systems, as a novel research tool, could facilitate novel studies into human movement and movement disorders. These systems have the unique ability of presenting immersive 3D stimulus while also allowing participants to make ecologically valid movement-based responses. Approach. We employed one such system (Oculus Rift DK2) in this study to present visual stimulus and acquire head-turn data from a cohort of 40 healthy adults. Participants were asked to complete head movements …

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